Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-01-21
OLYMPIA. WaSHINGTuN TER.
OLYMPIA, FRIDAY EVENING, JAN. 81. 1857
L" Don't Enigratc."


paper published i'll that dclcctahlc
land Of steady acknowledgements
home Of the =" Arkansaw Traveller"
and the fountain-head of Pike county
philosophy. 1t is written in comment
on letter from Col. ID. w. Fleet, of
Chehalis county, who, after several
wears residence in the Territory, has
given, in a letter to his old home
Nexington), some OF the reasons why
Washington is veritable land of
promise for those who wish to better
their condition. On" OF these is that
here women enjoy equal political priv
ileges, and this seems to have agitated
the bile of the Missouri editor and has
had the effect of the waving of a red
flag before the eyes of an enraged bull
as witness the following:
But of all places in the world that
our people don't want to go, Washington
and Wyoming Territories are the special
places, the Sodom and Gomorrah of the
new world. The juries in those Terri
tories are made up promiscuously OF men
and women, and like other juries they
are often locked up over night together,
because they cannot agree on verdict.
Grand juries made up of misters and
madames and misses are made up out of
two or three towns, and the papers chron-
icle their departure in a jolly crowd to-
gether for the county seat. An attempt
was made to exempt women from jury
duty but the professional jury women"
have grown so powerful and they were
so averse to giving up their perquisites
that the Legislature backed down before
their clamor."
The hyperbolic nature'of the intro
ductory sentence of the above extract,
which makes Washington and Wy
oming the Sodom and Gomorrah of
the world (not excepting Utah) very
well portrays the prejudice of Il mind
that has had no opportunity to free it.
self from the letters which ages of ig-
norance and oppression have woven
u.
doubtless failed to observe that ti.e
smile used for expressing moral deg
radiation was very inaptly chosen. II
there is any truth in the story of the
destruction of those ancient cities foi
a special cause, it was one quite differ
cht from that which the context of the
Registers article would lead us to be-
lieve menaccs the well-being of oul
fair Territory. The writer of that arti
Gle belong to Il class who believe that
wOman's best protection is ignorance
and that her proper station in life is
one of dependence. She must not he
trusted beyond the barriers of social
customs of Il bygonc age, although
they have probably been the means Of
driving more souls to destruction than
all other causes combined. Hap
PLY we live in an age of enlightened
progress, when the chains of every
form of servitude are riven, and each
human being may fill the sphere te
which nature and Natures God entities
her as well as him.
The Registers editor seems to have
drawn upon his imagination for those
chronicles of departure in jolly
crowds for the county seat" of "mis
tiers, madames aud misses" to serve or
the juries, although nobody can see
necessarily any immoral tendency il
such a "departure." We hope oul
Missouri contemporary has not drawn
his impressions of womanhood from
the average social standing of the fai
sex in his own State. If he has, W,
decidedly object to the application o
the same measure to the rectitude O
our people.
The professional jury woman" t
which the Register alludcs, is myth
She does not exist; nor has there beer
any effort made to exempt womel
from jury duty, except for cause, an,
the same rule has always applied t,
men. Equality was accorded simpl,
as matter of right, and has bcel
maintained because experience ha
shown that it is founded upon wisdom
and has done much not only to elevat
the ballot but to ennoble our courts q
Justice.
But listen, We have not yet hear,
the whole of the Indictment framed b,
this apostle of virtue. He says:
"The most significant fact about thi
woman suffrage business is that all TIN
veteran free-lovers," male and female
favor it; whilst the great mass of womel
do not wish to have political burden
added to their natural and domestic ones
Steady old conservative Missouri vii
never see women SO degraded, and W
warn our people and especially the Ger
mans (who are either the backbone O
this country or mighty close to the back
bone) not to be caught by any rose-col
Ored stories about Washington Territory
which was lately an Indian reservation
but at present reservation for cranks
female suffragists and free-lovers OF boil
sexes. There are some excellent peopl
there it is true SO there were in Sodom
The system is utterly demoralizing an,
is intended to break down the reserv
that exists between men and women an,
cause the sexes to mingle, just as mel
do now with each other. The free-lov
ers hope thus to put all women within
their reach. Missourians should stay a
home in decent country"
This is what is known to the cdito,
ial profession as "rot." Its object i
to embellish the central idea withou
regard to truth or fact and the end t.
be accomplished is, by "hook o
crook to keep the people in the Stat
who are already thereof their bein,
any accessions hope has long sine
fled. 1t needs no reply. 1t is false